Chapter 37-2

"Hey stranger." Tom beams his award-winning grin at me as he picks up the two cans and tomato in one hand. Why the fuck were his hand so big? "I haven't seen you since your cousin's birthday. You're not stalking me are you?" "For that to happen you would need to be interesting enough to stalk." I scoff as I put my hands on my hips. Tom tilts his head back and chuckles deeply. I pout, "Did I get your hopes up?" He nods with an amused smirk, "A little." "What a shame." I sigh while chuckling and bend down to pick the bags up again, "How have you been, Tommy?" "Great actually." He explains as he steps forward, "Let me help." I move my hanging hair out of my face and shake my head, "Oh—no—you don't have to." "It's fine." He says as he picks up two of the three bags with literally no effort. I stand up with lightest bag in my arms and turn to face him. "So, how have you been Hayden?" "I've been better." I say with a shrug, not wanting to get into to much detail. "Well, you still look amazing." Tom says with a flirtatious smile and I'm not gonna lie, it did make me grin slightly with a hot flush across my cheeks, "Please don't tell me your boyfriend's is gonna come out and beat my ass again." I scoff and raise and eyebrow, "Boyfriend?" "Yeah, the angry dude with the brown hair and a scary as fuck glare." Tom explains as I nod my head in understanding, "He did have a good punch, I'll give him that." "Yeah...he-uh-he went back to Seattle." I explain as I adjust my grip on the paper bag. "That's a shame to hear." He says but the look in his eyes told me otherwise, "How much longer are you planning to stay in Holden Bay." "Another week maybe, two at the max. We're probably going to leave after my two best friends get married." I explain as Tom nods along, "You?" "I'm probably the same. I've got to get back to LA before my roommate kicks my ass out for not paying rent." He explains and I chuckle along with him, "I was wondering if—" "Hey Hayden." I hear as I turn around to see Emily walking over to us while slipping her car keys into her handbag. Her blue eyes then move form me to Tom and they light up, "Oh, hi Tom. I didn't see you there." "I didn't know you dyed your hair, Emma. You look completely different." Tom remarks as Emily blushes and tucks her hair behind her hair. Bitch really said Debby Ryan, huh? "You two look like twins." "Ha ha, yeah...." I say awkwardly as I turn back to Emily who was staring at Tom in awe. Did she...did she not hear the part where he got her name wrong? "Are you coming in for your shift?" "Yup, it's a late one tonight." She explains before instantly changing the conversation to Tom, "I heard we're getting a restock of the protein powder you like, Tom." "I don't think you need anymore. Your muscles are about to fucking pop." I scoff as I glance up at Tom. He then smirks and starts to flex his muscles around the poor paper bags. I chuckle and roll my eyes, "Stop it." He laughs innocently, "What?" "I know what you're doing." I giggle as Emily stands between us, awkwardly glancing back and forth. "Well, we should let you go. Don't want to get you fired for being late, right?" "It's fine." Emily laughs as she waves her hand through the air, "I hate the job anyway." I laugh awkwardly as we all fall into an even more awkward silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I glance at Tom to see him giving me the same awkward expression. Yes! At least this time I don't have to sit in awkwardness by myself. Suddenly, the loudest sound of the car horn honking echoes over the parking lot, scaring all of us. We all glance out over the tarmac to see Noah standing with one foot in the driver's side and having his hand pressed against the horn. "That's Noah for you." Emily giggles as she flips her hair over her shoulder. It fucking irked me that she was acting like she knew Noah inside out, that he was her best friend rather than mine. "Well, we should get going before Noah gets out his fucking megaphone." I scoff as Tom gives me a look as if to ask really? I shake my head, "Don't even ask." He chuckles as he starts walking towards the car, completely blanking Emily. Her puppy-dog eyes follow him before she glances at me. A look flashed across her eyes but I missed it. Eh, I don't give a fuck. "See you later Emily." I smile at her as she gives me a tight grin in return. "Yeah—uh, bye Tom." Emily says as Tom glances over his shoulder at us. "Bye Amanda." Tom nods and I can't help but scoff. Amanda? That's not even fucking close. Is it bad that I kinda love it? I give Emily another smile before turning and hurrying after Tom, "Fuck your strides are long." "Not my fault you're just tiny." Tom smirks down at me as I start walking beside him. "Say that again and I'll break your knees." I narrow my eyes on his, "Then we'll see who's tiny." He was laughing as we near the car and Noah steps out of the driver's seat. He was glaring at Tom as he makes his way to the trunk of the car where we were standing. I smirk, "So you didn't get shot gun?" "No, your brother kick me in the balls as I was getting in." Noah grumbles as Tom and I laugh in unison. I glance into the car to see Michael holding up both middle fingers at Noah with a cheeky grin on his face. "I taught him well." I scoff as I press a button on the car keys and the trunk automatically opens on it own. Tom and I settle down the paper bags in the trunk before standing back. "It's an age-ist system, I fucking swear." Noah grumbles with his arms folded and the trunk slowly closes on its own. I roll my eyes at him and chuckle before turning back to Tom, "Thanks for carrying the bags for me." "Oh, it was no problem." Tom shrugs and runs a hand through his blonde hair, his biceps flexing with the movement, "It gave me a chance to talk to you again." "Yeah, I really—" Noah instantly slaps his hand over my mouth and drags me back against him, "Yeah, thanks Thomas. But we need to go now so...bye." "But I—" "Bye Tom." Noah says with more force as he starts dragging me back to the driver's seat and stuffs me inside, "Get you fatass head in there, Hayden Jones." "No! Fucking bitch!" I grumble as I try to fight against Noah shoving me in the car. Eventually he overpowered me and slammed the door shut. I could only wave goodbye at Tom as he chuckles and heads towards to the supermarket. I hope that wasn't as embarrassing as it was in my head. Fuck. It probably was. I mean, when is it ever not embarrassing in my life?